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SPEECHES 



(^EN. George B. M^Clellan 



DURlNti THE 



RESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OE 1876. 



PRESS OF 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1877. 



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SPEECHES 

OF 

GEN. GEORGE B. MTLELLAN 



SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO, 

OCTOBER 7, 1876. 

My Friends, — Never having had occasion to address 
so large an assemblage upon purely political subjects, I 
should have hesitated to appear had it not been for the 
assurance that there are many among you who would 
be glad to see me, and that my presence might have 
some slight influence upon the approaching election. 
The issues at stake are so great that at such a time as 
this no one who loves his country has any right to con- 
sult his own convenience, but is in honor bound to do 
whatever may be in his power to increase the chances 
of success of that party to which he conscientiously 
believes the government of the country should be in- 
trusted. There are many reasons why I am glad to 
respond to the call that has brought me here. 

When the late war broke out, I was a resident of Ohio, 
and count many of my best friends among your citi- 
zens. The first commission I held during the war was 
I 3 



4 SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. 

that of major-general of the Ohio volunteers. My first 
duty was the command of your State — the care of its 
defense and the organization of its troops. Under my 
orders the Ohio troops first went under fire, and under 
my command they and their gallant comrades from 
Indiana achieved those early successes that preserved 
Western Virginia to the Union and rendered secure the 
frontier of Ohio. 

In subsequent operations of the war also Ohio troops 
were under my command. It is natural, therefore, 
that I should feel a peculiar interest in those men 
whom I first saw pouring into the capital of the State 
as a body of undrilled, unorganized citizens — merely 
brave, patriotic, law-abiding men, who took up arms 
from the highest motives of duty and patriotism, 
leaving, without a thought for themselves, all they 
held dear in life, and thinking only of the danger of 
their country, and whom I saw, later on, changed into 
gallant veterans, equal to any emergency, capable of 
coping with any foe. 

I knew also that in the admirable home provided by 
the nation's gratitude for the war-worn soldiers I should 
find many of the brave veterans of that Army of the 
Potomac to which I owe so much. 

The hope of meeting again some of the survivors of 
these heroic comrades chiefly brought me here ; for I 
felt sure that, however some of us may be separated by 
lines of party politics, all would receive with kindness 
their first commander, who never had aught but the 
kindest thoughts for them, and that they would at least 
listen respectfully to whatever he might say upon sub- 
jects interesting us all in common. 



SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. 5 

The election which is to take place in this State next 
week is of vast importance. Even if we lose it we 
may, and will, carry the general election in November ; 
but if we win here our success throughout the country 
is absolutely certain, so that we should leave no honor- 
able thing undone to achieve it. 

At a time like this we should look beyond mere suc- 
cess. It is clear to me that a victory of the Democratic 
party is desirable from far higher motives than any 
mere wish for party success — it is essential for the good, 
for the existence, almost, of the country. We have 
before us an immense task in the reformation of the 
abuses and corruption which, as men of all parties 
acknowledge, have crept into the administration of the 
Government, and it is important that we should have 
the strength of the great State of Ohio in full and cor- 
dial support of the Democratic Administration. I hope 
to witness a victory of such a nature that no one can 
say that our party is in any respect sectional. I hope 
to see all portions of the country so represented in our 
victorious party that our new President may once more 
be the President of the whole country, and that an 
effectual stopper may be forever placed upon the miser- 
able and wicked policy of endeavoring to array one 
section of the country against another. 

I know my country well ; I know my countrymen 
still better. I am perfectly aware that the South is not 
precisely like New England ; that the West differs from 
the Middle States ; that the Pacific slope has its own 
peculiarities. The various parts of our country differ 
in soil, in climate, in means of communication, in par- 
ticular interests. One may be especially agricultural, 



6 SPEECH AT DA YTON, OHIO. 

another mining, another manufacturing, another com- 
mercial ; some, as is the case with this highly-favored 
State, unite several of these interests. But, my friends, 
instead of regarding this variety of interests, qualities, 
and pursuits as prejudicial, or as tending to cause 
clashing between the different parts of the body politic, 
we should recognize it as the greatest of blessings ; and 
we should thank the beneficent God, who brought our 
fathers to the land, that He has bestowed upon us a 
country containing within itself all the qualities neces- 
sary to constitute a great nation. Yes, my country- 
men, the Almighty has reserved for this later period 
of Christian civilization this last-discovered continent, 
and has allotted to us the glorious task of working out 
the greatest of problems under His guidance. Fortu- 
nate shall we and our descendants be if we comprehend 
aright the work before us; thrice miserable if, with 
all our boasted intelligence, we fail to understand our 
mission and our privileges. 

These variations or differences, of which I have 
spoken, are not causes of antagonism, but, on the con- 
trary, sources of strength and bonds of union, if we 
treat them properly. They correspond to the various 
organs of the human body — each intended to fulfill 
its own particular purpose ; each admirable in itself; 
each indispensable ; the whole together forming one 
perfect being, which is necessarily crippled by the in- 
jury or destruction of any one of the parts. 

You may liken them, if you will, to the wheels, shafts, 
and pinions that form a machine, a mill, or a reaper. 
YtDu all know how the parts of these machines differ — 
some small, others large; some of wood, others of iron; 



SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. 7 

each having its own separate work to do. You 
know also that if the machine or the body is to do its 
work perfectly you must keep all the parts in order 
and insure perfect harmony in action. 

Just so it is with the States and regions of our coun- 
try. It is the interest and necessity of each that all 
the others should prosper and enjoy peace and good 
government. In such a country as ours anything that 
affects injuriously one portion inevitably reacts upon all 
the others. It is a natural law from which there is no 
escape, and he must be willfully blind who fails to see it. 

Now, in your families and in your business associa- 
tions what do you do in order to insure peace, hap- 
piness, and prosperity? Why, you find it necessary 
to respect the rights, feelings, and interests of others 
at the same time that you defend your own. You find 
a certain amount of concession and consideration for 
others absolutely necessary to make life endurable. In 
fact, the whole fabric of government and civilized so- 
ciety is founded upon the principle that each individual 
must give up a certain portion of his individual rights 
and property for the benefit of all. In paying taxes, 
in obeying the laws, he differs from the savage in this, 
that he respects the rights of others and agrees to ab- 
stain from doing certain things which our religion 
declares and experience has shown to be injurious to 
other individuals and to society at large. This is the 
basis of civilization. Now, why do you submit to tax- 
ation and to the restraint of the law? Simply because 
you know that it is for your own good, and that with- 
out the protection of the laws this earth would be a 
very hell. If what I have stated be correct, and I do 



8 SPEECH A T DA YTON, OHIO. 

not think that any one will venture to insult the good 
sense of the American people by denying it, it follows 
that it is the duty of the Government and the interest 
of all the people to treat all portions of the coun- 
try with perfect justice and place them upon perfect 
equality. It also follows that it is the interest of the 
North to do everything in their power to restore pros- 
perity to the South in the shortest possible time, if for 
no worthier reason, at least that they may as soon as 
possible relieve us from a larger portion of the expenses 
of the Government than has been in their pov/er of 
late years. 

Here let me pause for a moment and say, what you 
all know, that the great, almost the sole, purpose of 
a government is to protect the individual citizens in 
their rights of person and property. The less a gov- 
ernment goes beyond this simple duty the better. The 
best government is that which is least felt, confines 
itself most closely to its legitimate duty, and performs 
it most quietly. 

The work of government cannot be performed with- 
out money, and it is the business of the people to de- 
cide, through their Representatives, how that money is 
to be raised, and how much of it there shall be. The 
people have the right to demand, and it is their duty 
to insist, that all portions of the country shall be 
equally cared for and protected ; that the public money 
shall be expended in the most frugal manner — never, 
save for the legitimate purposes of governing; and that 
honesty shall prevail in the administration of all public 
affairs. Every dollar that is extravagantly expended 
is taken from you ; every dishonest official robs you. 



SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. y 

For it matters not how the Government revenues are 
raised (whether by internal revenue taxes or by cus- 
toms), it comes directly out of your pockets — either 
by increasing your direct taxes or by forcing you to 
give a higher price for every article you buy, the rents 
you pay, etc. Not one of you, I do not care how poor 
he may be, can flatter himself that this subject of ex- 
travagant or dishonest expenditure is no concern of 
his. It affects every one of you \ for each of you pays 
his full share, in some way or other; either by increased 
expenditure or diminished income. Nor does the evil 
stop here. The direct question of expenditure is one 
of the least of the evils involved. The great danger, 
the flagrant wrong, is in the general demoralization, dis- 
honesty, and immorality produced among the people 
by the dishonest and extravagant administration of the 
national affairs; for herein is the greatest danger that 
can threaten a free people. 

It has been the fashion to denounce standing armies 
as the greatest enemies of freedom. No standing army 
ever long oppressed a people worthy of freedom, and 
the worst standing army that ever existed was inno- 
cence and virtue itself in comparison with an army of 
corrupt officials in the midst of a free people. The 
honest men among our political opponents acknowledge 
and deplore the existence of deep-seated corruption in 
our national affairs. 

I lay before you a question which you can answer 
for yourselves. How is the needed change most likely 
to be accomplished ? By the party under whose un- 
checked control these abuses have grown up, and who 
never breathed the word reform until alarmed by 



lo SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. 

Democratic successes, or by that party whose leader 
has not hesitated to combat abuses and achieve reform 
within the ranks of his own party? 

Why was it that nothing was seriously done to dis- 
cover abuses, prevent their recurrence, and promote 
economy until a Democratic House of Representatives 
came into power ? By whom were the efforts of the 
Democratic House checked ? We do not claim that 
every Democrat is honest ; but we do claim that we 
have punished dishonesty in our own party, and, there- 
fore, the country can rest assured that when the power 
passes into our hands, we may be trusted to reform the 
administration of the General Government. We do 
not for one moment suppose that the Republican party 
is composed mainly of bad men. I, for myself, can 
say that some of the friends whom I most respect and 
admire belong to that party. But we do say that the 
long possession of unchecked power has led to the in- 
evitable results of demoralization and corruption ; that 
bad and selfish men have too often come to the front, 
and that they have obtained so strong a hold upon the 
organization of the party, that the country can hope for 
no radical and satisfactory change, unless another party 
assumes the rein of government. If you are interested 
in some business company, and find that your agents 
have involved you in great difficulty by their extrava- 
gance, and perhaps dishonesty, what do you do? You 
do not trust their promise of reform, but at once re- 
move them, and replace them by others, whose ideas 
of business are in accordance with your own, and whom 
you can trust. So ought it to be with the affairs of 
government. When the people find that one party has 



SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. II 

plunged into extravagance, and that too many of their 
officials are corrupt, the only effectual remedy is to 
remove that party from power, and confer it upon their 
opponents. 

But let me return to the relations between the dif- 
ferent parts of the country. 

The purpose of the vast majority of those who entered 
the army, especially at the beginning of the war, was 
to preserve the Union and uphold the supremacy of the 
General Government over the whole land. The ques- 
tion of slavery hardly entered then into the minds of 
those who fought. As the war progressed that ques- 
tion, slavery, came to the front, and general emanci- 
pation ensued. I accept, and the Democratic party 
accepts, the result and its consequences, viz., the 
negro's right to vote and his equality before the law. 
We intend, when in power, to protect the negro in his 
right of suffrage, of political equality, and full security 
of person and property. The States once in arms 
against us have accepted these same results, and have 
been readmitted to their full standing as members of 
the Union. Since the war I have met great numbers 
of Southern men, and do not remember a single one 
who did not honestly accept the new situation. That 
there have been instances of disturbance in the Southern 
States since the war is true ; but they have been con- 
fined almost entirely to those States where the influ- 
ence of the officials of the General Government is most 
marked, and are very rarely found in those where the 
whites predominate and can control. 

But the great question for the present is simply 
whether the Southern States are in the Union. If not. 



12 SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. 

we have miserably failed in the objects of the war. The 
Republican leaders insist upon waving the ''bloody 
shirt" as the banner of their party. We of the Democ- 
racy are content with the glorious Stars and Stripes, 
under which so many of our best and bravest willingly 
gave their lives for their country. For what did they 
fight and die ? It was that not a star should be erased 
from our grand old flag. 

What did those slain heroes, what did you, my coun- 
trymen, mean and understand by a union of the States? 
Was it a union of brute force ; a union such as that of 
Servia and Bulgaria with Turkey? Far from it; it was 
a union of hearts, of common interests, of brotherly 
love, of mutual confidence and respect. We looked 
upon our antagonists as misguided men, who fought 
bravely for a mistaken principle. We undersood that 
disruption of the Union meant ruin and continuous 
strife. Our purpose was to break down by armed force, 
since no other way was practicable, the armed oppo- 
sition to the Government, and, when that was done, to 
pursue the policy so unhappily cut short by the un- 
timely and horrid death of the lamented Lincoln — a 
policy of conciliation and kind feeling, of protection, 
of forgiveness. Can any one in this country doubt on 
which side Mr. Lincoln would stand to-day had he 
been spared by that wretched assassin's hand ? Against 
a foe in arms no course is practicable save that of 
meeting him in arms. When that enemy is defeated, 
it is in accordance with the precepts of Christianity, 
with the commonly received sentiments of civilization, 
with soldierly honor, with self-interest, to treat jiim 
with mercy and humanity, even if he is a stranger, a 



SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. 



13 



foreigner, a rival of a different race. How much more, 
then, if he is a fellow-countryman and a brother? How, 
then, shall we characterize the conduct of men who, in 
order to distract attention from the corruption so rife 
in their party, strive to treat the defenseless South as 
if still in rebellion, and who do their worst to rekindle 
the fires of national animosity? Fellow-citizens and 
fellow-soldiers, as honest men and good citizens, it is 
our duty to see that the results gained by the war are 
not imperiled by the machinations of those who en- 
deavor to excite the dangerous passions of national 
hatred and distrust. It is our duty to do all in our 
power for the common good of the country by the 
prompt establishment of friendly feeling and confidence. 
It is our duty so to conduct ourselves towards our recent 
foes that, while assuring them that we intend to protect 
the negro in his acquired rights, we may give them good 
reason to love the Government and the flag as we do. 
Unless such a policy is pursued, unless we become a 
united people at heart, I look forward with dread and 
apprehension to the future. Some of the Republican 
leaders seek to raise the phantom of a "Solid South" 
governing the country. But we ask, what has made a 
" Solid South" but the oppression and injustice of Re- 
publican carpet-bag rule ? And how will you break up 
this "solidarity" of suffering and misery except by 
removing the causes which have produced it ? One 
would suppose, from what these gentlemen say, that 
during the war none but Republican soldiers fought on 
the side of the Government, while the Democrats all 
remained at home and opposed the war ! The refuta- 
tion of that slander I leave to you, merely remarking 



14 SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. 

that, with very few exceptions, the men who talk in 
this way were those who stayed at home themselves. 
One would suppose, too, from what they say, that there 
was danger that the *' Solid South," in combination 
with a small Democratic minority in the North, would 
rule the country for some traitorous purpose. In the 
present Congress there are, from the States that re- 
mained loyal to the General Government during the 
war, one hundred and ten Democratic Representatives 
to eighty-five Republicans. That does not look much 
like Southern control ! 

From all the information I have been able to obtain, 
I believe that the South only desires peace and quiet- 
ness. Treat them justly, let them manage their own 
internal affairs for themselves, do not interfere with 
them so long as they keep within the limits of the laws 
and the Constitution, and you will soon find that they 
know how to conform to the laws, and that they have 
the same interest in peace and good order that you 
have. Put a stop to the meddling interference of cor- 
rupt Government officials, and it will soon appear that 
the negroes will divide themselves between the two 
parties, and that the danger of a conflict of races has 
disappeared. As soon as the sectional question is finally 
obliterated from party discussion, and the whites of the 
South are left to themselves, they also will naturally 
divide into two parties upon questions of general policy, 
and we will have there, as well as in the North, the 
healthy and necessary check that two political parties 
afford in a free country. Every consideration that 
should influence patriotic men — generosity toward a 
defeated but gallant foe, self-respect, the peace and 



SPEECH AT DA YTON, OHIO. 



15 



good of the entire country, the national strength and 
honor, self-interest — all demand that we should stamp 
out this wretched effort to keep the Southern States in 
a condition of servitude and dependence. They are 
now once more our fellow-countrymen and our friends. 
In the name of all that is just and honorable, let us not 
treat them as Russia did Poland ; let us not create and 
maintain a festering sore of hatred and distrust, that 
would, of itself, deservedly ruin our country ; but let 
us treat them as brave and honest men, who mean what 
they say, when they declare that they desire to be loyal 
and law-abiding citizens of our common country. Trust 
them ; treat them justly and generously, and you will 
never have cause to regret it. Treat them as so many 
of the Republican leaders would have you do, and you 
leave a legacy to your descendants productive of far 
more evil than all the good you have done them, im- 
mense as it is, in your unsuccessful strife for the unity 
of the country. 

My fellow-citizens, my fellow-soldiers, — The success 
of the Democratic party means an earnest and success- 
ful effort to reform the abuses under which we suffer, to 
reduce the expenses of the Government, to put a stop 
to corruption, to confine the operations of the Govern- 
ment within its proper limits, to complete in its fullest 
sense the restoration of the Union, so long delayed by 
bad men, and to restore prosperity to the country. 
In Governor Tilden we have a thoroughly honest man, 
of large experience and rare ability, who, in his own 
State, and within his own party, has accomplished the 
very purposes for which we now need him at the head 
of the General Government. In what he has already 



1 6 SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. 

accomplished he has proved beyond question that he 
possesses the energy, integrity, perseverance, and ability 
that all acknowledge to be needed in our President. 
When elected he will use every power of his office, 
every quality of his nature, to restore the good old 
times when honesty and frugality were the rules; to 
make us once more a united nation, and to bring back 
the prosperity we so much need. 

In regard to the most eminent man who occupies 
the second place upon the Democratic ticket, it is 
surely unnecessary for me to say anything here, where 
he is so well known. Suffice it to say that he confers 
honor upon the place, and that it is a most happy cir- 
cumstance that gives us, in the candidate for the Vice- 
Presidency, the highest qualities of the citizen and the 
statesman — the most spotless reputation. 

On the other hand, the success of the P^epublican 
party necessarily means the continuation of the very 
same system under which the country has suffered so 
much, and I sincerely believe that another four years 
of the same rule would ruin us beyond redemption, and 
leave of this once glorious country not even a wreck 
worth preservation. Let them succeed, and it needs 
no prophet's eye to see stalking in their train the long 
procession of the demons of discord, sectional hate, 
civil strife, corruption, dishonesty, and ruin. Listen 
to the insane and rabid utterances of so many of their 
leaders ; remember the efforts they made to cover their 
corruption by stirring up the worst of human passions ; 
remember, too, that they have no word nor feeling of 
charity and kindness for any who differ from them, and 
tell me then whether I am wrong. Yes, my friends. 



SPEECH AT DAYTON, OHIO. 17 

the only possibility of a change for the better is in the 
success of the Democratic party. 

And you, my fellow-soldiers, united to me by the 
memory of the trials endured in common for our coun- 
try's sake— ties which nothing can ever sever, memo- 
ries that no lapse of time can destroy — I entreat you to 
consider what I have said and honestly believe. Do 
not permit party prejudices or the appeals of selfish or 
designing men to induce you to think for a moment of 
approving a policy that will surely destroy all the grand 
results for which you fought, and for which so many of 
our comrades gave their lives. Let not our last hours 
be embittered by the spectacle of a discordant and 
ruined nation ; but when we in our turn are summoned 
to take our places in that long column ever marching 
steadily toward the far-off and unknown land, may God 
grant that our last thoughts of earthly things may be 
that the battles of our earlier years were crowned with 
complete success, and that we leave our children citi- 
zens of a united, powerful, and prosperous nation ! God 
grant that future generations be not forced to say that, 
having bravely won the prize, we lacked the manhood, 
honesty, and ability to preserve it ! 



SPEECH AT READING, PA., 

OCTOBER 26, 1876. 



My Fellow-Citizens, — If there is any spot in the 
world where I can feel perfectly at home, it surely must 
be in my native State of Pennsylvania and in this stanch 
old county of Berks, that is always so steadfast in its 
adherence to the sound principles of the Democratic 
faith. There is sometimes an agreeable excitement 
in being surrounded by enemies, but it is much more 
pleasant to feel that there are none but warm friends 
about one, and that sensation I fully enjoy at the pres- 
ent moment. When I traveled yesterday through the 
magnificent valley — so richly endowed by nature, so 
wonderfully cultivated by the hand of man — that leads 
to Reading, I knew that I would find at my journey's 
end a fine and prosperous city, inhabited by ladies of 
exceeding beauty and by true and warm-hearted men ; 
but I was not prepared for the wonderful display of 
feeling that greeted me on my arrival. I can find no 
words to express the impression it made upon me. It 
touched me in the innermost recesses of my heart, and 
so long as I live I cannot forget that spontaneous evi- 
dence of regard for one so long only a quiet private 
citizen of the country. From my heart I thank you 
iS 



SPEECH AT READING, PA. 19 

for it, and trust that no act of mine need ever deprive 
me of that place in your love and confidence that I am 
so proud to feel that I possess. I am really somewhat 
at a loss to know why I was urged to come here to-day, 
unless it were that I might have the pleasure of seeing 
the bright, honest faces of the Berks County Demo- 
crats, and of finding out for myself how vast their 
number is. Surely, at such a time as this, it is un- 
necessary to collect speakers to arouse your enthusiasm 
— that you have in yourselves abundantly — enthusiasm 
and confidence. I suppose, therefore, that the chief 
purpose in assembling you here to-day has been to 
perfect your organization, to enable you to inter- 
change opinions with each other, and to discourage 
your opponents by showing them, on the eve of a 
great election, how numerous and confident you are. 
Would that all the counties of my native State were 
like Berks! We should have easy work before us. 
As that, unfortunately, is not the case, you must do 
your best to make them so, and each one of you 
should exert himself, in the short interval that is to 
elapse before the election, to excite similar enthusiasm 
among our political friends in other counties, to con- 
firm the strong, strengthen the weak — if any such there 
be among the Democrats — and, above all, to leave no 
honest means untried to reach the good and honest 
men among the Republicans, and convince them that 
it is their duty to act with us in the coming election. 

THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE. 

I very much doubt whether I have anything new to 
say to you. The main questions at issue before the 
2* 



20 SPEECH AT READING, PA. 

people are few and simple, and have been so often and 
fully discussed that I cannot hope to throw any more 
light upon the subject than you now possess. But as 
neither you nor I would be quite contented if I left 
you without saying a few words upon the subjects that 
just now fill our brains and hearts, you will pardon me 
if perhaps I weary you by a repetition of things often 
said in your presence. To my mind, there are just 
two great questions now before us, which involve and 
contain all the others. One is the question of Reform, 
the other that of the Union. I do not propose to enter 
into the details of either of these vast subjects. I have 
not the time, and probably not the ability. You would 
not have patience enough to listen to the long story. 
When I use the word Reform, I employ it in its largest 
sense, as covering and applied to the whole subject of 
the civil administration of the General Government; 
the enactment of just and equal laws; the raising of 
revenues, and the expenditures of the Government ; 
the questions of extravagance and dishonesty in the 
conduct of affairs throughout all the grades of Federal 
officials in all the branches of the public service; the 
punishment of those derelict in duty; the number of 
officials, their duties, mode of appointment and dis- 
charge ; the strict observance of the letter and spirit 
of the Constitution ; the general financial system ; the 
encouragement of commerce and trade; the opening 
of new markets for our manufactures ; the removal of 
unnecessary and unjust restrictions upon various indus- 
tries of the country. I might mention many more 
branches of the subject ; I name these merely to show 
you that the word Reform, so often and sometimes so 



SPEECH AT READING, PA. 21 

carelessly used, applies to a vast variety of subjects, for 
in my opinion we need changes in regard to many 
things before we can hope to prosper. So, too, in 
regard to the term Union. I understand it as referring 
to those numerous points that have grown out of our 
war for the Union, the changed relations between the 
various parts of our great country, and the duties of 
each part to all the others. So far as my present pur- 
poses are concerned, I shall not detain you long on 
either of these subjects. 

THE NEEDED REFORM. 

The question whether reform is needed admits of no 
discussion, for that necessity is admitted by the true 
and honest men of both parties. The only question is 
as to how we shall be sure to get it. The Cincinnati 
platform of the Republican party avowed the necessity 
of reform, but they take good care to say little or 
nothing about it in the canvass, and a great many of 
the Republican leaders who have been most active for 
a number of years in bringing about the state of things 
which we all deplore seek to cover and evade the ques- 
tions at issue by virulent abuse of all their opponents 
and by the continuous flaunting of their wretched 
"bloody shirt" in the faces of a disgusted people. 
The only possible evidence of sincerity in their pro- 
fessions of reform is in the respectable personal char- 
acter of their candidate for the Presidency ; but any 
sensible man who observes that the most active and 
influential workers in the canvass are the very same 
leaders who have guided the party, and with it the 
country, into the sad condition in which we now find 



22 SPEECH AT READING, PA. 

ourselves, must see that it is certain, beyond the possi- 
bility of a doubt, that, should the Republicans succeed 
in the coming election, these same leaders would retain 
their old control of the organization of the party and 
continue in the same path they have so long followed. 
Numbers of the ablest, best, and purest of the old-time 
Republican leaders clearly see, and as openly avow, 
that there is no possibility of reform within the Re- 
publican party, and that it is to be sought only within 
the strong arms and true hearts of the Democracy. I 
need only mention Charles Francis Adams, who unites 
in himself the virtues and ability of three generations 
of eminent patriots; Trumbull, that Senator worthy of 
the best days of the Republic, who sacrificed himself 
rather than give an unjust vote when his party de- 
manded the conviction of President Johnson ; Doo- 
little, Godwin, and so many others who are so well 
known that I need not dwell upon them. But, stand- 
ing here on Pennsylvania soil, I would fail in my 
duty to my State and to myself did I not unite with 
you in offering the most hearty welcome to one most 
eminent son of the Keystone State, whose love of 
country and sincere patriotism have brought him into 
our ranks. I need not tell you that I refer to Andrew 
Curtin — the War Governor of Pennsylvania — the man 
who occupied the proud and most important office of 
chief of our State during the whole of the civil war. 

GOVERNOR CURTIN. 

It affords me the greatest pleasure to say here to a 
Pennsylvania audience, that I had frequent occasion 
during the war to know what stuff Governor Curtin 



SPEECH AT READING, PA. 23 

was made of. Differing from him in politics, I found 
him ever a courteous gentleman, never extreme or 
bitter in his opinions, able and energetic in the execu- 
tion of his high office, and so broad and liberal in all 
his views that, when duty was to be performed, he 
knew no distinction of party. To Democratic soldiers 
such as Hancock, Franklin, John F. Reynolds, Black, 
and that one who now addresses you, he ever gave full 
and cordial support. I am glad to have a fitting op- 
portunity to acknowledge this, and to say that I feel 
all the more sure that my party and I are right when 
such a man as Governor Curtin unites his fortunes with 
ours. But I have permitted myself to digress further 
than I intended. I only desired to mention the opin- 
ions of some of these brighter ornaments of the Re- 
publican party in its better days, to show that we are 
correct in thinking that the necessary reforms cannot 
be hoped for under the Republican party, and that you 
may be gratified and encouraged in inviting the atten- 
tion of your Republican acquaintances to examples so 
fit to follow. Remember that these gentlemen not only 
express the opinion that no good thing is to be expected 
from the Republican party, but also that we are to be 
trusted, and that they do expect a change for the better 
under our rule. 

WHY WE FOUGHT. 

We, of the North, went into the war because the 
Southern States took up arms to enforce the right of 
secession, and with the purpose of preserving the Union 
by forcibly preventing that secession. We must bear 
in mind that the majority of the Southern people had 



24 SPEECH AT READING, PA. 

received a different education on this point from our- 
selves. They had been taught to believe that a State 
had the right to secede when it thought fit, and that 
the allegiance of each individual was due first to his 
State, next to the General Government. We in the 
North had been educated in the contrary doctrine. It 
was clear to us, and I think that few men in the South 
will now deny the correctness of the view, that the 
doctrine of secession involved the weakness and ruin 
of the country, and that our safety, strength, and pros- 
perity depended upon the strength of the bonds which 
formed the Union of the States, and that that Union 
was and must be indissoluble. Both parties were 
equally honest in their convictions. Tried by the 
stern logic of events it has proved that we were right 
and the South wrong. When the actual fighting 
ceased we were in a position to enforce whatever de- 
mands we chose to make, and the South had no al- 
ternative but to conform to those demands, which 
certainly were full and ample. The result was the 
complete abandonment of the doctrine of secession 
and the settlement of the negro question upon the 
basis determined by the extremists of the North. Not 
content with this, the Republican party — I should 
rather say the extreme radical wing of it — have insisted 
since the war, and still insist, upon pursuing a course 
which promotes discord in the South and throughout 
the entire country, which has prevented the Southern 
States from regaining their old prosperity, and thus 
reacts directly upon Pennsylvania and all the Northern 
States, simply for the purpose of retaining party as- 
cendency. Now look for a moment at what the aban- 



SPEECH AT READING, PA. 



25 



donment of the doctrine of secession means. It means 
that there is no legal way for a State, no matter how 
much it may be oppressed, to escape from the Union. 
There is only one possible way — that is armed revolu- 
tion, and that way is not within reach of the South. 

ARE THEY IN OR OUT? 

The Southern States are either in the Union or they 
are not. If they are, then they are entitled to the 
same treatment as Pennsylvania and New York ; they 
have the same rights and privileges, and are under the 
same obligations. Moreover, as we have brought them 
back into the Union by force of arms and deprived 
them of the means of leaving it, even if they should 
desire to do so, we are bound by every consideration 
of- policy, self-interestj justice, and generosity to be so 
careful of their feelings and interests as to make their 
position in the Union a pleasant and desirable one, for 
there can be no strength in such a Union as ours unless 
all the parts are on perfect equality, are prosperous and 
contented, and can retain their self-respect. If the 
Southern States are not in the Union, then the sacri- 
fices of the war were in vain, and there is no logical 
alternative save to regard them as subject and conquered 
provinces, to be repressed for all time by the stern con- 
trol of military force. I cannot believe that any Amer- 
ican can be so lost to shame, so devoid of love for his 
country, so wanting in the common feeling of charity 
that distinguishes man from the brute, as to advocate 
the last course I have mentioned. But, my friends, 
there is no middle ground — it must be the one thing or 
the other. I, for my part, am sure that the just and 



26 SPEECH AT READING, PA. 

generous course is the only safe and wise one. I am 
entirely satisfied that we have but to remove from the 
South the meddling and often unconstitutional inter- 
ference of the General Government, leave them to their 
own course, simply holding them responsible for their 
conduct under the Constitution and the laws, just as 
we would any Northern State, and we shall find that 
peace and good order will prevail there quite as com- 
pletely as in any other portion of the country. 

The policy I advocate is that of the Democratic 
party ; that of the Republicans is the opposite. I can- 
not doubt which my countrymen will choose rf they 
consider the subject dispassionately and calmly. It is 
impossible that we men of the North can forget the fact 
that our own ancestors and those of our recent antago- 
nists worked, fought, and suffered together to lay the 
foundations of that Government under which we live ; 
that Washington was a Southerner; that Jefferson called 
Virginia his native State ; that so many of our wisest 
statesmen and purest patriots were from that section 
of the country for which simple justice and kind treat- 
ment are now invoked. 



SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA, PA., 

OCTOBER 28, 1876. 



Again, my fellow-citizens of Philadelphia, it is my 
pleasant duty to thank you for a reception that might 
well turn a stronger brain than mine. Once, some 
fifteen years ago, when on my way from the mountains 
of Western Virginia to assume command at the endan- 
gered capital of the country, you met me on my journey 
and encouraged me, more than I can express, by the 
kind feeling and confidence you showed me. Some 
years later, and again to-night, you have proved that, 
although I hold no official position, very many thou- 
sands of Philadelphians still honor me with their re- 
gard. To you who are assembled in the hall, and 
through you to the thousands I have met to-night, I 
offer my earnest and heartfelt thanks for your kindness, 
prized all the more because it comes from those among 
whom I was born. You know, my fellow-citizens, that 
I do not seek occasion to thrust myself upon the public 
notice. I am here to-night only because I think that 
the present condition of the country is such as to ren- 
der it incumbent upon all who have the general in- 
terests at heart to use every effort in their power to 
correct the evils under which the people suffer. That 

3 27 



28 SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA, PA. 

the country is ill at ease and the reverse of prosperous 
will be denied by no one. It is patent to all that en- 
terprise is at a standstill, that the great iron interests of 
this State are in a condition of great depression, that 
the grand commercial marine that once carried our 
products and our flag over every sea has practically 
disappeared from existence. Every interest has suf- 
fered, and, saddest of all, vast multitudes of honest, 
willing, and skillful operatives and laborers, who would 
be only too glad to accept any honest work that would 
keep their families from starvation, seek in vain for em- 
ployment at any price. The causes of this state of 
things are manifold, but prominent among them is 
misgovernment, and that we have been misgoverned 
of late years few intelligent and honest men will deny. 
A long war is certain to produce great convulsions in 
all branches of trade and industry. The government 
and people of France, since the close of the disastrous 
German war, have given to the world a noble example 
of the effects of wise and consistent economy. The 
French have not as yet formally and officially resumed 
specie payments ; nevertheless, long ago their paper 
money was at par, their credit admirable, and all their 
industries in a prosperous condition considering the 
financial state of Europe. The reason of this is, that 
the government and people have practiced strict econ- 
omy. While all the great and necessary purposes of 
government have been amply provided for, their army 
enlarged, re-armed, and re-equipped, vast systems of 
fortifications constructed, the ravages of war repaired, 
the country is still rich and prosperous — more so than 
victorious Germany. 



SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA, PA. 29 

Before the successful termination of our war it was 
evident to many wise men, and should have been clear 
to the Government, that we were in a period of infla- 
tion and extravagance, to be followed by a revulsion 
just as surely as night follows day. It was the duty of 
the Government to prepare for and provide against this 
by all the proper means at their command. The num- 
ber of officials should have been reduced and all the 
expenditures to the lowest point consistent with an 
efficient administration of affairs. The army and navy 
and the civil branches should have been brought back 
to a peace establishment as rapidly as possible. Not 
an unnecessary dollar should have been expended. 
The burden of taxation should have been lightened, 
and no attempt made to anticipate any considerable 
portion of the national debt. Exhausted as our people 
were by the numerous and inevitable burdens of the 
war, it ought to have been considered enough for this 
generation, who had so liberally paid their share in 
blood and suffering, to meet promptly and fully the 
interest upon the debt. The attempt to anticipate and 
pay the principal involved a vast increase of taxation, 
which was an almost intolerable burden upon the 
nation, and crippled or destroyed many branches of 
industry. With the natural increase of the population 
and wealth of the country, and with a return to pros- 
perity in the South, it will be possible in a few years 
to meet the principal of the debt quite as rapidly as 
any reasonable person can desire without resorting to 
any system of taxation that will be at all oppressive to 
any of the interests of the nation. 



39 SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



AN HONEST ADMINISTRATION. 

It is unnecessary to say to this audience that at all 
times, and especially after a great war, the people have 
a right to demand of those they place in power not 
only a wise and economical, but, above all things, a 
thoroughly honest administration of the duties con- 
fided to them, and that officials shall never forget that 
the powers with which they are intrusted are to be used 
for the benefit of the people, and not for the benefit of 
individuals in office, their friends, or their political 
party. The people have a right to expect that their 
government shall be national, not partisan. Woe to 
the people who neither comprehend nor enforce that 
right ! So also in regard to the questions that grew 
out of the war — in regard to the relations of the Gen- 
eral Government with the States once at war with it. 
I shall not discuss the propriety of the terms imposed 
upon the seceded States. They have accepted and 
still accept them ; the Democratic party accepts them 
as final and irrevocable. They are ample and com- 
plete. They settled every point at issue. They con- 
tained the complete abandonment of the doctrine of 
secession, and the complete settlement of the negro 
question. So far as was thought necessary by the party 
in power they received the sanction and guarantee in- 
volved in their declaration in the form of Constitu- 
tional amendments. Slavery was the cause of the 
difference between the two sections; it has disappeared 
forever, and now their interests are, or should be, 
identical. Generosity requires that we should deal 



SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA, PA. 31 

gently with a gallant antagonist when he is thoroughly 
overcome. Justice demands, now that we have brought 
them back into the Union, that we recede back to them 
all the privileges of the position, while demanding the 
fulfillment of all its legitimate obligations. I believe 
that many of the leaders of the Republican party who 
have heretofore shaped its policy, and will continue to 
do so, should the party remain in power, have been 
forgetful of their obligations to the country, have 
placed personal and party interests above those of the 
nation, and have connived at and participated in cor- 
ruption. No change for the better can be expected 
under Republican rule. But I believe that it will be 
otherwise under that of the Democrats, especially with 
such a leader as Samuel J. Tilden, who has proved 
more than equal to every duty imposed upon him, who 
has fought and conquered wrong in his own party, who 
has refuted every slander that malice has inspired 
against him, and whose last admirable letter so com- 
pletely wins the approval of every honest man in the 
North and South. I am sure that this Centennial year 
is destined to be remembered as that during which all 
obstacles were removed that interfered with the com- 
plete harmony of the States, when the last traces of 
the great civil war were obliterated from the hearts and 
minds of all true Americans, when that newer, firmer, 
and better Union was inaugurated, which shall, in the 
second century of our nation's life, lead us to heights 
of power and happiness that we do not even dream of 
now. I trust that when our descendants meet in the 
City of Brotherly Love to celebrate the second Centen- 
nial anniversary of our country's birth they may have 



-2 SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA, PA. 

just cause to recall with pride how you completed and 
crowned the great and beneficent labors of the year by 
moving in the front rank of those who crushed forever 
the last attempt to prevent the real and full restoration 
of the Union. 



SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS., 

NOVEMBER 2, 1876. 



My Friends and Fellow-Citizens, — I cannot 
comprehend how any American can stand within these 
historic walls without intense emotion. [Applause.] 
Within the ample limits of this New World, extending 
from pole almost to pole, from the vast Pacific to the 
stormy Atlantic, containing within itself every variety 
of climate, the grandest works of nature and repre- 
sentatives of almost every branch of the human race, 
there is perhaps no one point so closely associated as 
this with the struggle for human liberty and self-gov- 
ernment — none where the voices of true statesmen, 
great orators, and sincere patriots have so often re- 
sounded in words that shall live so long as the English 
language is known among men — ay, yet longer, per- 
haps ! So long even as there are men who prize and 
struggle for liberty and progress. I have heard the 
theory broached that no sound ever ceases, but that 
every spoken word, whether idle or of solemn import, 
after it has become inaudible to our mortal ears, travels 
ever onward upon the waves of sound into the unlim- 
ited realms of space, and shall not cease until that last 
day when the sons of men stand at the bar of their 

33 



34 SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 

Creator, when every word that every mortal has ut- 
tered shall make itself heard as a witness against him 
or in his favor. If this theory were true, and science 
could find the means to deflect and bring back to us 
all that has been spoken in this hall, there would be no 
need for me, no need for any of us, to raise our voices 
here to-day. We should listen to the Adamses, Han- 
cocks, Warrens of a century ago, pleading in impas- 
sioned tones the cause of liberty and union, and urging 
our fathers by resistless arguments to take up arms 
against oppression, tyranny, and misgovernm.ent ; we 
should hear the echo of the first shots fired in that war, 
which gave us a place among the nations of the earth ; 
we should hear the glad shouts that welcomed Wash- 
ington and his comrades when they entered Boston 
upon the heels of the retiring British. 

Later on, we should listen to the voices of tiie 
younger Adams, replete with wisdom ; of Everett and 
Choate, among the dead ; Adams and Winthrop, among 
the living; of Sumner and so many others who de- 
voted their lives to the cause of emancipation ; some 
denouncing the Constitution as a covenant with hell, 
and placing the cause of the negro above all other con- 
siderations ; others, more moderate and wise, desiring 
to accomplish their object within the Constitution and 
the laws. But clearest and loudest above all should we 
hear the trumpet tones of that most illustrious of modern 
orators, Daniel Webster, raising high above all things, 
and against all opposition, the cause of the Union and 
the Constitution bequeathed us by the wisdom and for- 
bearance of our flithers. The century that has just 
elapsed has been for us a very remarkable one. During 



SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 35 

its passage we have established our independence be- 
yond peradventure; we have grown from a small num- 
ber of weak colonies — too often discordant, and united 
by no strong ties — into a great nation of forty millions 
of people; our dominion has leaped from the Missis- 
sippi to the Pacific, from the borders of the Gulf to the 
shores of the Arctic Ocean ; we have passed success- 
fully through the ordeals of foreign and civil wars; we 
have made wonderful progress in the arts of peace, and 
in the sterner pursuits of war; we have given a secure 
asylum to the oppressed and the aspiring of all the 
nations of the earth ; the blot of slavery has been for- 
ever removed from among us ; and the fatal doctrine 
of the right of secession, held by a numerous class of 
our people, has been permanently and effectually oblit- 
erated. Much, very much, has been accomplished ; 
but, as must ever be the case in human affairs, our 
work is not yet completed, and more remains to be 
done to secure the full benefit of all that has been 
achieved. 

My friends, it is with sincere diffidence, and not of 
my own volition, that I venture to lay my opinions 
before you, for I am well aware of the superior ability 
of those who have so often discussed in your presence 
the great questions at issue. 

But there are times in the history of every nation 
when every true patriot should willingly bear his part 
in the political struggles of the day. 

I do love my country [applause and continued cheer- 
ing], and as, when the dreadful sounds of civil war 
aroused us from the long slumbers of peace, I did not 
hesitate to bear my part in the struggle, and honestly 



^6 SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 

do all in my power for my country, so, too, now when 
I think that we are in the midst of a solemn crisis in 
our national affairs, I could not refuse to obey the call 
of those who thought that some words from me might 
serve the cause I have so much at heart. [Applause.] 
Although the stirring associations connected with this 
sj)ot might well deter me from appearing here, yet 
there are other considerations which render it not in- 
appropriate. For I, too, claim direct descent from 
those Pilgrim Fathers whose children laid the founda- 
tion of this time-honored building upon the rock 
which is no unfit emblem of the strength of their prin- 
ciples. Moreover, I was told that I should meet, among 
the audience gathered here to-day, no small number of 
those brave veterans who, under my command, upheld 
so gallantly the military reputation and civic virtues of 
their forefathers. For both these reasons I feel that I 
have some little right to stand here, unworthy as I 
may be. 

What is the mission of our country, and how can that 
mission best be accomplished ? I am one of those who 
believe that no nation can rise or fall except in accord- 
ance with the will of the Supreme Ruler of the universe; 
that so long as a nation conforms to His will it prospers, 
and that when it fails to do so He shatters it as He did 
the Egyptians and Israelites of old. It is certain that 
His purposes are often so hidden, His means of action 
so concealed, that it is difficult, perhaps impossible, for 
the limited intellect of man to understand His ways; 
but it is sometimes the case that a close study of history, 
and a careful examination of existing facts, may give 
us a clue to His designs. This nation stands alone 



SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 



37 



upon the surface of the earth ; the pages of history 
show nothing like it. Unknown, save perhaps to a 
few wandering, storm-tossed Norsemen, too weak to 
avail themselves of their discovery, too ignorant to 
recognize its importance or to impart it to others more 
favored than themselves, this vast continent remained 
hidden by the broad curtain of the Atlantic until, in 
the fullness of time, the adventurous Genoese, in his 
crazy bark, developed to the wondering gaze of the Old 
World the fact that beyond the stormy sea, so long the 
terror of the most adventurous navigators, there lay 
another world, rich in all that tempts human greed, in 
all that can gratify the highest aspirations of man. 
Mark now the time when this greatest of human dis- 
coveries took place. It was when the thick pall was 
at last uplifted that had so long weighed down upon 
Europe, after the dismemberment of the Roman Em- 
pire ; when the inroads of nations of barbarians had 
ceased ; when the descendants of the Teutonic tribes, 
the Gauls, the Longobards, the Goths, had assimilated 
to themselves something at least of the civilization of 
Greece and Rome ; when the last blow had been given 
to the Moslem power in Western Europe, and it was 
finally settled that the great mass of Europe should be 
held and governed by Christian nations ; when the arts 
and sciences had once more revived and were attaining 
a degree of splendor perhaps never before equaled, 
and in some regards hardly since surpassed ; when free 
thought in its noblest sense began to assert itself; when 
the elements were ripe for the continuous struggle about 
to commence between the divine right of kings and the 
heaven-given prerogative of the people ; between des- 



38 



SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 



potism and self-government ; between the mere form 
and the true spirit of religion ; between the absolute 
power of the Church and the rights of conscience of 
the individual; in other words, the still unfinished 
contest for religious and political freedom. It was by 
no mere chance that that most memorable voyage of 
Columbus occurred at a time when the maritime and 
commercial activity of Europe were so largely devel- 
oped and the great nations abounded in intelligent and 
adventurous men capable of availing themselves to the 
full of the new discovery. It was not, I repeat, through 
mere chance that Columbus lived and sailed when he 
did ; it was because the fullness of time had arrived, 
and the purposes for which the Almighty had reserved 
this continent could at length be fulfilled. 

Look, now, at the different courses of policy pursued 
by the various nations which colonized this country, 
and see the results. The colonies of Spain, France, 
and Portugal were all governed in accordance with the 
strictest principles of military and political despotism; 
individual freedom, self-government, toleration, were 
not for a moment permitted, and, where they dared 
raise their heads, were remorselessly crushed to the 
earth. The Spaniard unhesitatingly put to the sword 
all who dared differ from him, and boasted that he 
thus did God good service ! The French pursued a 
less cruel but equally effectual course. It was only 
where the British colonists set foot, with their well- 
settled ideas of self-government, of education, of re- 
ligious and political freedom, that true prosperity, 
strength, and progress were attained. It is too true 
that many of our good Pilgrim fathers were among the 



SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 39 

least tolerant of men ; but this abnormal condition 
lasted only until they were well assured that power was 
so firmly fixed in their own hands that they were in no 
danger from the interference of others in regard to 
their dearly prized religious and political convictions. 

Contrast the results ! With scarcely an exception 
the countries once Spanish colonies present at the 
present day a most discouraging spectacle. Ignorance 
prevails among them ; anarchy and revolution are 
almost their normal condition ; and they have yet to 
show that they are fit to govern themselves, and to 
insure their own tranquillity, good order, and happi- 
ness. The French colonies attained so little innate 
strength that those on the main-land fell at almost the 
first blow dealt by a mere handful of a more vigorous 
race, or were sold to prevent their capture. How is it, 
then, where the British race has held control? On our 
northern frontier is the prosperous Dominion of Can- 
ada, where a kindred people enjoy all the advantages 
of freedom and self-government, a republic except in 
the mere name, education widely diffused, sound pros- 
perity prevailing, and rapid progress made from year 
to year in strength and wealth. Contrast this in your 
own minds with the condition of Mexico and Cuba, 
and you will find that the causes of the difference are 
not far to seek. 

But when we turn to our own favored land, what do 
we find? Within a century we have grown from a 
handful of scattered colonists to a mighty nation which, 
in the arts and sciences, in inherent strength and mag- 
nitude of resources, is the peer of the greatest of the 
nations of the Old World. Our population is made up 

4 



40 SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 

from all the races of Europe; all living in wonderful 
harmony, and gradually fusing into a mass that shall 
form a nation whose characteristics it will require gen- 
erations to determine, and which we can now only 
guess at. Our people are generally well educated, and 
the time will soon arrive when the public school-house 
will be found in every remote part of our wide domain. 
The great vexed problem of the relations between 
Church and State has been most happily solved by 
complete and absolute toleration of all religions, so 
that the rights of conscience of the humblest of our 
people are entirely secure. Any one residing among 
us may i)ossess himself of all the rights of a citizen, 
and may aspire to any office or employment, save one, 
within the gift of the people, and even to that one, 
the highest of all, any native-born citizen is eligible, 
however humble his origin. [Applause.] It seems 
clear to me that among the great purposes which the 
Almighty has in view for this country is the formation 
of a new people, made up of many races, so united 
and fused as to combine the best and highest qualities 
of all ; among whom self-government shall prevail 
under republican institutions; where education shall 
extend to all; where peace, charity, forbearance, and 
good will shall rule; where the various sects and 
branches of the great Christian Church shall dwell 
together in harmony and peace, recognizing the fact 
that since no two men are exactly alike, therefore no 
single form of worship can be devised that will suit all 
men, and that, while they hold the same simple essen- 
tial and fundamental doctrines of Christianity, they 
may differ as friends in regard to mere forms of wor- 



SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 41 

ship and Church government, and at the same time 
work together as brethren in the common cause ; and, 
last of all, that our country may not only remain a safe 
isylum for the persecuted and afflicted of other lands, 
Dut may ever shine forth, as a beacon upon a high 
place, showing to the world that education, virtue, and 
religion will enable men to govern themselves wisely 
md well, and that a republic is the best form of gov- 
ernment for those worthy of it. If I am correct in 
kvhat I have stated, we can expect the continued aid of 
;hat God who buildeth up and casteth down nations 
Duly if we pursue a policy in accordance with His 
iesigns. 

I think that if our people listen to one of the political 
parties now contending for supremacy, we are in danger 
3f following a course that will more than jeopardize all 
;he good things our forefathers bequeathed us, and will 
plunge our country into difficulties so serious that I, 
for one, can see no sure and safe escape. I will not 
kveary you by referring to the many points at issue be- 
:ween the two parties ; they have been too often dis- 
:ussed in your hearing. In regard, for example, to that 
^reat question as to whether the administration of the 
Government has been corrupt and extravagant, and 
:herefore needs reform, and whether it is possible to 
obtain, under the party now in power, that reform 
kvhich all good men acknowledge to be necessary, I 
feel that it would be almost impertinent in me to say 
mything before a Massachusetts audience, who know 
50 well the opinions held by that real statesman, that 
most worthy representative of a long line of illustrious 
mcestors, that relic of a better age, Charles Francis 



42 SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 

Adams. I am more than content to leave that subject 
in the hands of one who has so grandly shown that de- 
votion to the country he has served so well is, with 
him, superior to all mere party ties. I am proud that 
my country possesses such a citizen ; but I should be 
filled with shame and regret could I feel that the good 
men of the party with which he formerly acted could 
hesitate to give to his reasons and conclusions a fair, 
honest, and unprejudiced consideration. But there is 
one point in regard to which I feel compelled to speak 
to you briefly, but most earnestly. That, as you may 
readily divine, is the subject of the relations between 
the two parts of our common country recently in arms 
against each other. The direct cause of the war was 
that the Southern States asserted their right to secede 
from the Union, prepared to maintain that asserted 
right by force of arms, and actually fired upon the flag 
waving over Fort Sumter. The indirect cause was 
doubtless to be found in the institution of slavery, for 
it was to protect that institution against certain real or 
imaginary dangers that they resorted to secession. On 
the other hand, the North took up arms to prevent the 
South from seceding, and to force them to remain in 
the Union. Congress, by its solemn act, declared that 
to be the purpose of the war, and it was to carry out 
that purpose that the great mass of the Northern peo- 
ple, without distinction of party, took up arms. You 
men of Massachusetts, who freely gave so many of your 
best and bravest for the country, know only tco well 
that the war was long, well contested, and bloody. Its 
results were that the South was exhausted and crushed, 
the right of secession abandoned forever, slavery abol- 



SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 43 

ished, the negro raised to the level of the white man so 
far as all the rights of citizenship are concerned. 

I doubt whether all the direct and indirect objects of 
any war were ever so thoroughly and permanently ac- 
complished as by the war in question. Our antagonist 
was so completely in our power that he was obliged to 
concede all that we demanded. We demanded and 
obtained everything that the most extreme partisan 
could desire, and I think we ought to be satisfied ; for 
we obtained every possible indemnity for the past, and 
every imaginable security for the future. All the old 
issues are obliterated, and there is no possibility of their 
revival. [Applause.] Every Southern State has fully 
accepted the results of the war ; that is, the abandon- 
ment of the doctrine of secession, the emancipation of 
the slaves, their right of suffrage, and their full equality 
before the law. More than eleven years have now 
elapsed since the last hostile shot was fired, and it is a 
most suggestive and convincing fact that in those States 
where the whites have obtained full control, such as 
Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama, there have been no 
outrages upon blacks, or disorders of any kind, more 
numerous or more heinous than similar occurrences in 
the Northern States. In those Southern States where, 
under carpet-bag rule, disorders and persecution were 
said to occur, it is most singular that they ceased as 
soon as the whites came into power. Take, for example, 
Arkansas for the last two years ; it has been as orderly 
and quiet as Massachusetts. In Mississippi, also, the 
change was miraculous. It is another suggestive fact 
that these alleged outrages always take place just before 
the elections [applause and laughter] and cease as soon 
4* 



44 SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 

as they are over. This would indicate that if our white 
brethren of the South are responsible for them they 
must be the most idiotic and reckless of men, which I 
do not quite believe. [Applause.] Take also the recent 
reported disturbances in South Carolina. After an at- 
tentive reading of all that I have seen in the papers, I 
can make nothing of them, except that they were com- 
menced by Republican negroes for the purpose of de- 
terring any of their fellow-blacks from voting the Demo- 
cratic ticket, and have been availed of by the Adminis- 
tration at Washington as an excuse for placing the State 
under martial law. I maintain that our experience 
since the war proves that the great mass of the whites 
at the South can safely be intrusted with the manage- 
ment of their own affairs [prolonged applause], and 
that their conduct obliges us to concede that they have 
sincerely accepted the changed condition of things. 
Before the war the institution of slavery created a sharp 
line of demarkation — a wide chasm in fact — between 
the interests and policy of the slave-holding States on 
the one hand, and the free States on the other. But 
with the final disappearance of slavery that chasm has 
closed, and I am at a loss to conceive in what respect 
the interests and policy of the Southern States can here- 
after differ from those of other States similarly situated 
in regard to commerce, agriculture, and manufactures. 
They are no longer united by the firm bands of a com- 
mon proi)erty in slaves, and can only be kept together 
as *'a solid South" by the still stronger bands of com- 
munity under suffering, wrong, and oppression; if left 
free to follow their own interests they will be divided 
by the inevitable diversities of local interests and situa- 



SPEECH AT. BOSTON, MASS. 45 

tion. It is surely unnecessary for me to say to such an 
audience as this that it is the first duty of a govern- 
ment to guard the rights and interests of all its citizens, 
of all parts of the country, and to insure peace and 
good will throughout the land. It is unnecessary for 
me to say that it is the interest of each portion of the 
country that all the others should be at rest and prosper. 
In a manufacturing and commercial community such 
as this, surely every child knows that it is your interest 
that the best relations should exist between you and the 
South, and that prosperity should reign throughout 
that great market for your wares. 

But let me return upon my steps. I have shown, I 
hope, that your well-being is inseparable from that of 
the South ; that it is your duty to protect and do justice 
to that portion of the country; that the Southerners 
can be safely trusted ; that all necessary causes of separa- 
tion and difference have been forever obliterated ; that 
all the direct and indirect objects of the war have been 
permanently settled in favor of the North. [Loud ap- 
plause.] What more can I say ? Nothing, save this, 
that it is idle for us to hope for the blessing of God 
upon our nation if we do not adopt a policy clearly in 
accordance with the principles of Christianity and with 
the destiny He has marked out for this country. That 
policy and those principles require that we should do 
what we demand of our late antagonists — forget the 
past and accept the situation of the present ; that we 
should recognize the fact that the States once opposed 
to the General Government are again in the Union and 
entitled to all the rights and privileges of their natural 
position. They have given ample guarantees, they have 



^6 SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 

conceded everything : and we should be worse than 
savages did we not do our part and use every effort to 
restore the kind feeling and mutual trust, without which 
our Union must be a mere rope of sand. I deny the 
patriotism and good faith of those who for party pur- 
poses, or from personal feeling and interest, strive to 
keep up a feeling of national hatred and distrust. If 
our country is to fulfill its destiny, if we are to continue 
in the path of progress, if we are to leave to our chil- 
dren a free and happy land, we cannot too soon restore 
fraternal feeling and community of interests between 
all the parts of the nation. [Applause.] But there 
are present here many to whom I would especially ad- 
dress a few words — my comrades of the war. [Pro- 
longed applause and cheers.] And through them I 
hope to meet other of my fellow-soldiers who are not in 
the hall to-day. 

Comrades, fellow-soldiers! You of all men know 
best for what purpose you took up arms, when the cry 
rang through the land that our flag had been fired upon. 
You know that it was to protect that flag, to prevent 
the secession of the Southern States, to preserve the 
Union, to insure the supremacy of the Constitution and 
the laws of the General Government over our entire 
territory, that we rushed to arms, and stood side by side 
— Democrats and Republicans, thinking naught of party 
lines — and did our best for our country. You know 
full well that it was only to preserve the Union, not to 
oppress the conquered South, not to reduce the whites 
to that condition of slavery from which we liberated 
the blacks, that we so often met the foe in battle. Our 
great purpose was to give our lives, rather than see our 



SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 47 

country divided, and the future of the nation utterly 
destroyed. We saw that it was better for us to die in 
battle than to stand quietly by and leave for our chil- 
dren such an ignominious and wretched future as would 
certainly be in store for them if our country were broken 
up into warring and discordant fragments. [Applause.] 
As I have already said, there came with the close of 
hostilities the final settlement of the questions of seces- 
sion, slavery, and the political rights of the negro. 
There remains the great, the real object for which we 
fought; that is the complete restoration of the Union, 
not only a union of government, an acceptance of the 
Constitution and laws by all parts of the country ; but a 
true union of hearts, of brotherly love, which will in- 
duce each one of us to combat for the rights of all the 
others, and to stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder, 
in the defense of the country and of all its citizens. 
[Applause.] You of all others in the land — not only 
you who listen to me, but all our comrades throughout 
the country, all the warriors of so many well-fought 
and bloody fields — are bound by every consideration to 
ponder this matter well and to throw your active in- 
fluence into the scale on the side of patriotism and jus- 
tice. Unless I entirely mistake the sentiments of the 
grand Army of the Potomac, there was scarcely one 
man in it who did not feel that the work of war was 
done when the last enemy laid down his arms and gave 
ample guarantees for the future. During the war you 
acted, as I of all men know so well, the part of good 
soldiers, and when the war was over you desired still to 
enact that part. 

What is a good soldier ? Why is he regarded through- 



48 SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 

out all the world with admiration and respect ? A good 
soldier is one who, without any care for himself, de- 
votes his life to a cause which he regards as just and 
righteous. [Applause.] He is a man of truth, and of 
the highest honor ; he is brave in battle, thinks not of 
wounds and danger; and in the hour of triumph is 
merciful and forgiving towards a fallen foe. Whose 
are the names that have come down to us in history as 
the noblest specimens of mankind ? Brave, skillful sol- 
diers, who, when victory is achieved, forget all rancor, 
and show naught but kindness and forgiveness to the 
conquered. [Cheers and prolonged applause.] Who 
have been held up as the execrable monsters of the 
human race ? Those miscalled soldiers, in whom tri- 
umph only serves to excite and aggravate the worst 
of passions ; those who murder defenseless prisoners, 
women and children, sack captured cities [cries of 
''Butler," and laughter], and repeat the horrors of 
Attila and his barbarians, Tilly at Magdeburg, Alva in 
the Netherlands. 

My comrades of Massachusetts, you belong, I know, 
to the class of the truly brave and noble warriors. It 
is no't in your nature to persecute a valiant but fallen 
enemy in a spirit of brutal vengeance. [Applause.] 
For the honor of my country I regret that so many of 
the Republican leaders are doing their best in the 
present campaign to excite a feeling of national hatred 
and distrust. If they succeed, and carry their policy 
into practice, you will find that the purposes for which 
you fought are further from accomplishment than ever. 
Tlie breach between ourselves and our recent antago- 
nists will widen every day; race will be at war against 



SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 49 

race in the South, and the safety of the nation more 
than ever endangered. If the Democratic party is 
successful you will find that the notorious abuses in 
the administration of the Government are reformed ; 
that peace and harmony are restored ; that while the 
negro has his full rights, those of the white man are also 
recognized ; that happiness and prosperity will again 
prevail throughout the whole of our country. Our 
candidate, Governor Tilden, is a most honest and able 
man, of large experience, and fully fitted for the duties 
of the high office to which we hope to elect him. He 
was a stanch supporter of the war, and possesses every 
claim to your confidence. 

I am very happy, my comrades, to meet so many of 
you face to face once more. As of old we so often 
stood side by side in face of the great danger that 
then threatened our country, so I trust and believe 
that in this time, of perhaps even greater peril, we 
shall again be found in the same ranks, under the same 
grand flag of the Union, working and striving in har- 
mony for the nation's good. I have said what I had 
to say, and entreat you, by the recollections of our 
common past, to think calmly over it. 

Men of Massachusetts, New Englanders ! You should 
be the last to forget the glorious memories and associa- 
tions of the past, and the first to devote all your energies 
to the work of building up a new and stronger Union 
for the future. The first battle fought in the war of 
the Revolution was in sight of the spot on which we 
stand ; the last, upon the soil of Virginia. When a 
hostile garrison held this city, the patriot army that 
lay upon the bleak hills around it was commanded 



ro SPEECH AT BOSTON, MASS. 

by the great Southerner, the greatest of Americans. 
During that memorable war the soldiers of New Eng- 
land fought side by side with those of the South ; in 
the Continental army Northern and Southern generals 
alike commanded. In the councils of our young nation, 
Hancock and Jefferson, Adams and Henry alike took 
part ; alike staked life, fortune, and honor on the re- 
sult. In that war, and in that civil strife, which I sin- 
cerely pray may be the last that our country shall ever 
see, you played so great a part, so many of your chil- 
dren sacrificed themselves for the country, so many 
more displayed the highest attributes of heroism, that 
you can well afford to be just and generous. No man 
can gainsay your motives, or impeach your patriotism; 
and it becomes you well to bury forever all feelings of 
animosity, and extend in all sincerity the right hand of 
fellowship to your recent adversaries. Proud as is the 
laurel crown that adorns the brows of the New England 
veteran, prouder and more noble still is the civic oak- 
leaf wreath that you will win for yourselves by sternly 
refusing every attempt to prolong a feeling of hostility, 
and by taking to your hearts those of your fellow- 
countrymen who once warred against us, but are now 
defenseless and at our mercy. [Applause.] 

As in war you gained all for which you fought so 
bravely, so now, in peace, it would in this Centennial 
year be a most fitting tribute to the memory of those 
fathers of the country whose glory is our common 
heritage to i)reserve the prize by magnanimity. 



SPEECH AT ELMIRA, NEW YORK, 

NOVEMBER 3, 1876. 



My Fellow-Citizens and Fellow-Soldiers, — When 
I accepted the invitation to address you to-day, I was 
assured that I was so fortunate as to possess many warm 
friends among your citizens and also among the Repub- 
lican as well as the Democratic soldiers, all of whom 
shed so much lustre upon the name of the Empire 
State during the recent war. I need not say that their 
promises have been more than fulfilled. 

I am here to plead the cause of that party upon whose 
success I believe the best interests of the country de- 
pend. Under such a form of government as ours, it 
is not only rights but absolutely necessary for the safety 
of the country, that there should be two political 
parties. 

The human mind is so constituted that no two men 
are precisely alike in their opinions, dispositions, and 
motives. The Almighty in His wisdom has seen fit to 
make us so, just as He has made no two trees, no two 
animals, absolutely identical. 

In a large community it is inevitable that men should 
range themselves under various opposing banners. It 
is generally the case that in the great principles of 

5 51 



C2 SPEECH AT ELMIRA, N. Y. 

government the main issues affecting the well-being of 
the nation are of such a nature that the great majority 
of the people naturally form themselves into two sep- 
arate camps, between which the lines of demarkation 
are more or less clearly drawn, as the questions at issue 
are more or less vital. 

Each of these parties is necessarily composed of the 
same variety of elements that make up the entire body 
of the people. 

There are those who from selfish motives or from 
strong prejudices subordinate the interests of the coun- 
try to those of their party. Again, there are those — 
and I think by far the larger portion — who act with 
their party only because they regard it as best fitted to 
control the nation, and who, in any great crisis, will 
abandon their own and act with the opposite party, if 
convinced that by so doing they will serve the best 
interests of their country. 

This class of fastidious men fully comprehend that 
the good of the nation should never be subordinate to 
the interests of a party and its leaders. They under- 
stand that it is best for all concerned that the two 
parties should serve as mutual checks, and that if that 
one with which they have habitually acted should by 
too long and too absolute a tenure of power become 
careless of its obligations to the whole country, it is 
their duty to exercise their right and privilege as disin- 
terested patriots and throw their influence in favor ol 
the other to restore the equilibrium of the body politic. 
Under the most favorable circumstances, it is difficull 
for any party to retain power for so long a period as 
sixteen years without losing, to some extent, the puritv 



SPEECH AT ELMIRA, N. Y. 53 

nd unselfishness that the country has a right to expect ; 
,nd experience has shown that it is best for the true 
nterest of all concerned that the party controlling the 
jovernment should occasionally be changed as a security 
gainst carelessness and corruption. 

It is more than probable that the best condition of 
.ffairs in our country is when the parties are so nearly 
)alanced that there shall be a strong and vigilant 
ninority in Congress constantly opposing the policy 
.nd acts of the majority, checking them in regard to 
xtravagance or dishonesty, and ever ready to profit 
)y any fault they may commit. Even under such cir- 
:umstances it will be found that before the lapse of 
nany years the people will demand a change, as essen- 
ial to their interests. The case we have in hand is far 
lifferent from this. The party has for years, and until 
. year past, held control so absolute that it can fairly 
)e said that no effective minority existed. And what 
lave been the results? We might well rest our case 
ipon the utterances of such Republicans as Charles 
ii'rancis Adams, that patriotic man who in the most 
Tying time of our history so wisely, broadly, and 
veil upheld our cause at London ; to Andrew G. 
IJurtin, the Republican governor, who presided over 
^our great sister State of Pennsylvania during the 
vhole of the war; to Trumbull and Doolittle, those 
giants among so many wooden pigmies in the Senate, 
md to many other good and noble men who love 
;heir country better than they do their party. I can- 
lot see how any true man can read what these men 
jay without reaching the conclusion that the time has 
irrived for all good and honest men to think no longer 



^4 SPEECH AT ELM IRA, N. Y. 

of party, but only of the peril of their country. These 
men declare that the party with which they so long 
acted, and which they so much admired, is no longer 
worthy of confidence — that it can no longer be in- 
trusted with the control of the country, and that the 
Democratic party, purged by disaster, is worthy of con- 
fidence, that its policy is right, and that it ought to be 
called to the government of the nation. They assert 
that it has been too well proved that the administra- 
tion of our Government is corrupt and extravagant, 
and that in order to preserve their power, many of the 
most active leaders of the Republican party have not 
scrupled to do their worst to maintain a feeling of ani- 
mosity between the whites and blacks of the South, and 
between the whole North and the whites of the South. 
In brief, that in order to maintain their personal and 
party ascendency, they do not hesitate to sacrifice the 
present and future welfare of the country. My friends, 
I believe that everything these gentlemen say is true to 
the letter. 

Fortunately for the country, there arose in the minds 
of a vast majority of our people some two years ago 
the profound conviction that the Republican party was 
unfaithful to its trust, and the result was the election 
of a Democratic House of Representatives for the first 
time in many years. Democratic members of that 
House devoted themselves faithfully and unceasingly 
to the work of retrenchment, the discovery and pun- 
ishment of abuses and corruption, as well as their pre- 
vention for the future. Unfortunately, the Senate and 
all the executive departments of the Government were 
Republicans, who exerted all their energies and all the 



SPEECH AT EL MIR A, N. Y. 55 

means at their command to thwart the efforts of the 
House and secure themselves, so that, far from afford- 
ing that co-operation which true patriotism demanded, 
they did their best to withhold information and ren- 
der these efforts abortive. Under such circumstances 
it was impossible for the House to fulfill their mission 
and accomplish their work as completely as they desired. 

Enough was done in spite of all obstacles to prove 
beyond the possibility of a doubt that extravagance 
and corruption ruled far too wide for the honor of the 
nation. Their sturdy efforts in favor of economy were 
not entirely in vain, though badly thwarted by the op- 
position of the Executive and the Senate. In the Re- 
publican Convention at Cincinnati the only Cabinet 
officer who had ably and boldly fought the good fight 
of honesty and reform was rejected almost with con- 
tempt when his name was brought forward as a candi- 
date for the Presidency. 

The men who made the largest and strongest fight 
for the nomination were those whose names were most 
prominently associated with the policy that has brought 
the country to its present sad condition. At length 
when these men found that their mutual animosities 
would prevent the success of any one of them their ad- 
herents united in a compromise, which resulted in the 
nomination of a very respectable gentleman. 

But he owes his nomination to them ; they control 
the organization of the party and have been the most 
active participants in the canvass, so that, whatever his 
personal feelings may be. Governor Hayes, if elected, 
must necessarily give these same men the most promi- 
nent places in his Cabinet and Government, and they 



5 6 SPEECH AT EL MIR A, N. Y. 

will, as heretofore, control the party, and pursue in the 
future the very same policy they have followed in the 
past. 

In their platform they acknowledged shortcomings 
of the Government and avowed the necessity of a 
change for the better ; so much they plainly saw was a 
necessary concession to the good men of the party. 
But what have they done in the canvass ? We hear no 
more confessions of the abuses of the past. We hear 
no more reform, and, my friends, if they are success- 
ful in the election you have heard the last of it for an- 
other four years, and great as is my confidence in the 
resources of my country, I doubt whether at the end of 
four years we should have anything left worth reforming. 

What are the issues these men now make through 
the country? What are the strings upon which they 
play? What are the sentiments to which they appeal? 
and what are the arguments which they think sufficient 
for the intelligence of the American people? 

They deal entirely in virulent slanders against the 
Democratic party and its great leader, who, I am proud 
to say, has more than refuted and repelled every cal- 
umny they have so industriously circulated. They in- 
sult the integrity and intelligence of at least one-half 
of the people of the North, by charging that in the 
hands of the Democracy, the party of economy and 
reform, the national credit would be less secure than 
with that party, the extravagance and corruption of 
whose leaders are confessed by all of the honest men 
of their own party. Instead of seeking to allay for- 
ever, as any patriotic man would do, whatever of 
angry feeling may remain as the effect of our recent 



SPEECH AT EL MIR A, N. V. 57 

war, they do their best to increase it beyond the high- 
est point it ever reached during the conflict. Far 
from urging the fact that the great issues of that war, 
secession, emancipation, and political rights of the 
negro, are things of the past, settled forever, and the 
only thing remaining to be done is to restore peace 
and prosperity to our whole land, to present to the re- 
stored members of the Union the free exercise of all 
their rights, while they are held to the performance of 
all their duties, making no difference between any of 
the sovereign members of the Union and establishing 
a stronger Union than ever, they do their best to excite 
feelings of distrust and bitter hatred, to render our 
Union precarious, and to retard the restoration of 
prosperity through the land. Because it seems more 
than probable that the Democrats would gain a peace- 
ful victory in South Carolina, the General Government 
have sent into that State all the available troops of the 
regular army, pretending that atrocious and treason- 
able conspiracies existed, and that grave disasters were 
to be apprehended. While, on the other hand, we 
have the conclusive evidence of the Republican mayor, 
of the Republican judges, numbers of the most re- 
spectable business men of the State, and last of all, of 
that most honest and clear-headed gentleman. Senator 
Randolph, of New Jersey, that there is no founda- 
tion whatever for the charges made in the President's 
proclamation as the basis of his action. 

My friends ! this same thing might just as well have 
been done in New York. It is only a question of 
power; and it is just as much your duty and right to 
protest against it in South Carolina as if it had been 



58 



SPEECH AT ELMIRA, N. V. 



attempted in Elmira. I doubt whether you would like 
it here, and you must remember that every violation 
of constitutional right is as much your concern in one 
part of the country as another. 

If you allow one instance of this kind to pass unre- 
buked, you will soon find it repeated somewhere else. 

In the good old days of the Revolution, our fore- 
fathers did not wait for the blow to fall upon their own 
colony, but each recognized the fact that the good of 
each was the good of all, that the peril of one was the 
danger of the whole. 

So also with regard to the extraordinary course re- 
ported to have been pursued within the last few days 
in Louisiana — that of arresting large numbers of men 
upon vague and unsubstantial charges, and refusing 
them a hearing until after the election, in order to de- 
prive them of their votes. I do not think that act can 
commend itself to any of you, no matter to what party 
you belong, and you must remember that if it can be 
done in Louisiana, it may with equal propriety be at- 
tempted here. If you disapprove, as I cannot doubt 
you heartily do, of the action in Louisiana, you must 
express your disaffection and prevent its establishment 
as a principle of misgovernment by the only means in 
your power — that is, by using your privileges at the 
ballot-box to drive out of office those who connive at 
and practice such abominable things. 

Unless the newspapers do them great injustice, some 
of the Republican leaders have expressed the opinion 
and belief that Mr. Tilden's inauguration will not be 
peaceably permitted, and can only be effected by del- 
uging the streets of Washington in blood. 



SPEECH AT E LAI IK A, N. Y. 59 

I cannot believe it possible that any American can 
be so debased as to hold such opinions, or so biased as 
to utter them. But if it be true that such words have 
been uttered, it is the duty of every true lover of his 
country to record his opinion of them by his vote, and 
to drive ignominiously out of power the party which 
such men control. 

If Mr. Hayes would be elected, no Democrat would 
dream of opposing his inauguration. We are a law- 
abiding party, and recognize the right of the majority 
to rule. 

But if Governor Tilden is elected, as I am sure he will 
be by an overwhelming majority, he must and shall be 
inaugurated, and any attempted opposition would be 
swept away as chaff before the wind. I have referred 
to these things only to show my Democratic friends 
that it is necessary that each one of them should use 
every effort in his power to make our majority as large 
as possible, and also with the hope that some of those 
of the Republican party, whose patriotism is greater 
than their party prejudice, may be led to believe that 
it is to their interest and duty to oust out forever men 
capable of entertaining feelings so unnatural to Ameri- 
cans. 

The people of this country have now to choose be- 
tween two parties, one of which has brought about the 
evils under which we suffer, and has never, as a body, 
taken any steps to correct them ; the other being 
pledged by every tradition of its past history and by 
every hope for the future to put a speedy end to them. 
Those who feel that reform is necessary, are in my 
judgment wholly mistaken if they expect it under a 



6o SPEECH AT ELMIRA, N. V. 

continuation of Republican rule, for the same leaders 
who have directed the policy of the party will continue 
in power if the people decide that party shall have an- 
other lease of office. 

That reform may confidently and surely be expected 
under Democratic rule, is proven by the fact that their 
leader has already successfully striven for it within his 
own party — the most certain test of honest intentions 
and real ability of the party to fulfill its promises to the 
nation. 

In regard to the vital question of the treatment of 
the Southern States, it seems to me there is no room 
for argument. 

We of the Democracy hold that when the last shot 
was" fired in our civil war, and the seceded States ac- 
cepted every condition imposed upon them, — emanci- 
pation, the negroes' right of suffrage and full citizenship, 
the abandonment of the right of secession, — the war was 
over, and that it only remained to restore to the States 
once in arms against us all the rights, privileges, and 
duties under the Constitution and laws. 

I do not care to discuss the past treatment of the 
Southern States, except so far as it will throw light 
upon the future. I maintain that in spite of all vex- 
ations of carpet-bag rule, in spite of repeated uncon- 
stitutional interference of the General Government, 
in spite of distrust, oppression, and poverty, induced 
or aggravated by misgovernment, the experience of the 
past eleven years has proved not only that the whites 
of the South can be safely trusted to conform honestly 
and fully to the obligations of their new positions, but 
that it is only by trusting them, treating them kindly. 



SPEECH AT E LAURA, N. Y. 6 1 

and doing our best to restore kind feeling between all 
parts of the country, that we can accomplish that real, 
hearty restoration of the Union which was the true 
purpose of the war and which ought to be the chief 
object of every good citizen. 

A contrary course, that advocated by so many of the 
Republican leaders, can only delay indefinitely the com- 
plete restoration of peace, and at the same time that it 
provokes ill feeling throughout the land, retard for 
years that prosperity and progress which we have so 
much at heart. I am very sure that if we could obtain 
the calm and honest opinion of those who fought for 
the Union in the war, the decision would be almost 
unanimous of declaring the war at an end, while all its 
objects have been accomplished, and in insisting that 
the men who fought so gallantly against them in a mis- 
taken cause now should be treated in every respect as 
brethren and fellow-countrymen. I am sure that my 
comrades will pardon me for saying to thena that it is 
now quite as much their duty as brave soldiers and 
good citizens to protect their now defenseless foe, and 
to put an end forever to their miserable attempt to 
prolong in peace a state of feeling hardly creditable 
even during the war, as it was to meet and overcome 
the South in arms. 

The surest test of a true soldier is his conduct toward 
the enemy he has lately conquered. None of you, my 
fellow-soldiers, will display feelings of revenge toward 
the brave but now unarmed men who once fought you 
so stubbornly and whom you so gallantly conquered. 

In this State I need not dwell upon the claims of Gov- 
ernor Tilden to the support of the people. I will only 



62 SPEECH AT EL MIR A, N. V. 

declare my entire confidence in his ability and fitness 
for the Presidency, and state my firm conviction that 
every Democrat will give him full and cordial support. 

But I cannot close these brief remarks without a 
word in regard to that distinguished citizen of Elmira 
who is our candidate for the office of Governor of the 
State. Pure and above reproach in all the relations of 
private and public life, a true gentleman of most dis- 
tinguished ability and large experience, he has shown 
in his public career that with him country is far above 
party. I am confident that the bright example of 
Lucius Robinson will incite every Democrat to re- 
newed activity, and induce many honest and patriotic 
Republicans to consider well what and how great are 
their obligations to their country. 

My friends, there is but one step now to battle and 
assured victory. Remember that no good soldier re- 
gards the victory as secured until the enemy is in full 
retreat and the field of battle won. 



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